Illusion vs. Reality

A detailed Summary of Illusion vs. Reality

Generally, people have the tendency to judge individuals by their appearance, exactly the way they judge a book by it's cover. However, appearance doesn't always help reveal a person's true colors. In the play, The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare portrays this perception of illusions vs. reality through three major plots, which are the Induction with Christopher Sly, the Petruchio/Katharina debacle, as well the Katharina/Bianca situation dealing with shrewishness.

One can see that Shakespeare uses illusions from the beginning of play in the Induction with Christopher Sly. Christopher Sly is introduced to the audience as a beggar at the beginning of the Induction, fighting with a hostess at an alehouse. Soon afterwards, he passes out in front of the alehouse, when a lord finds him sleeping. The lord tells his servants to take Sly in and trick him into believing that he is a lord himself. The lord's servants place Sly into the lord's bed and dress him with exceptional clothes and jewelry. When Sly awakens, he thinks he is dreaming because the servants offer Sly wine and food. Sly protests that he remembers himself as being a poor beggar. The lord tells Sly that this exp

Overall, in the play The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare uses illusions vs. reality in this play to illustrate how the actors used their own tactics to get what they wanted. For instance, Christopher Sly didn't believe that he could be a lord at first, but when he saw his "wife", he automatically changed his mind and went along with the idea. In the same way, Petruchio comes out to be a forthcoming man, but when he marries Katharina, one can see that he has a malevolent side to him when he wants to accomplish something, which in this case was to tame Katharina. In addition, it is apparent to the reader that Bianca has been the shrew throughout the play when the men create a wager to see who's wife would obey them. Katharina is the only true, obedient wife at the end of the play. Therefore, one can tell that Shakespeare uses these illusions to show how the actors conned people into getting what they wanted.

lanation is the result of a madness that he has been in for 15 years, but Sly is still skeptical. However, when his "wife" comes in, who is a page to the lord dressed up as a lady, Sly is convinced that he is a lord by exclaiming "Am I a lord? And have I such a lady? Or do I dream? Or have I dreamed till now? I do not sleep: I see, I hear, I speak, Upon my life, I am a lord indeed, and not a tinker nor Christopher Sly . Well, bring our lady hither to our sight, and once again a pot o' the smallest ale." (Page 10) When he hears that he has a "wife", he thinks that nothing else can be more astonishing than that. The hint that he is extremely blissful is shown when he pronounces, "'Tis much. Servants, leave me and her alone. Madam, undress you and come now to bed" (Page 12) in the Induction in lines 113-114. It is obvious that Sly will believe anything to get what he wants, which is sex with his own "wife". Sly would rather be a lord and have shelter and food then be a poor tinker. When reading the Induction, the reader probably thought that Sly was just a beggar through his appearance, but at the end of the Induction, one can obviously see that Sly was misleading when he assumed that he was a lord just to suit his needs.

Furthermore, Shakespeare has created an illusion between Katharina and Bianca as well. The reader presumably envisions Katharina to b

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Approximate Word count = 1546
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English